stuff I've been up to lately

Shoes You This Day: Guest Post

I invited my best friend from Kansas City, Lacey, to contribute a Shoes You post.

If any of you have had a past few days like I have, then this may put our little lives in perspective.

Another reason why I love this post is because of all the memories I have with Lacey at the same ice rink!

There aren’t many joys that compare to the simple joys of spending time with loved ones, even if you don’t see eye to eye regularly. Somehow your eyes can align on one rudimentary task or goal: trying not to fall on your behinds or break a leg on the glassy ice of an ice rink. It may resemble a calm lake, but the only semblance it may mirror is, invariably, cement upon contact with ze derriere.

I took my father’s hand as we glided across the recently watered ice with holiday music wafting through the crisp autumn air. Children secured themselves tightly to their parents’ hands or the skid marked up wall for better support.  I could see in my father’s face the look of intense concentration not to lose his footing before I made the mistake of asking him a question that distracted him from his ice skating zone. Wobble, wobble, arms began to jerk--one could slowly see what might happen next, but for once, I was my father’s support. I grabbed his arm tightly and stood solid as a rock until he regained his balance. We lightened the air by laughing at how graceful we must have looked, and began sliding over the ice once more. Sometimes we need a loved one to catch us from falling on the ice and sometimes we need to be the support that does the catching.

Packing for Thanksgiving holiday! Whoops :) my closet could be a Jcrew catalog. Happy Holidays everyone! Watch out for more Shoes Yous during my upcoming travels.

Shoes You This Day: At the Barre

Just visited The Phillips Collection to see the Degas Dancers at the Barre exhibition. Here I am at the barre in first position. Just kidding I didn't get that far in ballet to know the positions.

I've held it in too long

I hope not to offend anyone, but every girl is entitled to her opinion, right? Hopefully if you disagree with me you can just laugh off my intense feelings I am about to share.

5 trends that need to go away:

1) Toms in general. But especially the wedding day Toms extravaganza. There is nothing cute about wearing hospital booties. (I'm still debating if I even want to tarnish my blog by putting this picture on here. A. It is a horrible composition, frumpy, and sloppy. B. It has Toms in it) 

 2) Child-Abuse infant photography. This and so many others are just wrong, wrong, wrong. Have you seen the one of the infant propped up in Grandpa's smelly old cowboy boot? Don't do this to your innocent, darling baby! It's not even cute.

 3) Boot Socks. My feelings aren't QUITE as strong about this, but still. I don't think it's cute. Especially the pics I've seen of tall boots, layered with over the top tall socks (far above the knee, people), with only about 2 inches of your skinny jeans showing, before your mid-thigh peacoat takes over. Why wear jeans? The boot socks shorten the look of your boots and your legs in general. 

4) Weird pregnancy announcements. There are too many examples to share, but this one has been bothering me. All it makes me think of is, she probably shouldn't be wearing that skirt, and on 12.24.11 everything is going to drop out of her.

5) Weird Save the Date announcements that try to be clever but make it hard to see the couple and understand what information they are trying to convey.

Guys. I truly respect if any of you have differing opinions and would be open to hearing about them. Please don't be offended if I don't like these certain things.

Love,

mags

How do you get through your workout?

This is me:
Don't stop till you get to the next minute.
Once I get there:
Don't stop till this song is over
Then don't stop till you reached 2 miles.
Don't stop till you reach 300 calories.
Don't stop till those boys are done getting water.
Don't stop until the commercials are over.
Don't stop till you're done reading this article.
Don't stop till the person next to you stops.
Then start all over.

I think I've tried everything. What do you guys do?

I babysat with Becky over the weekend. Those kids are OBSESSED with The Little Mermaid (still?). I used to be obsessed with it too. I think we watched the movie twice and sang "Under the Sea" 5 million times. But guess what I took away from my weekend?

Ariel had a Georges de la Tour. Who knew? She really was a curator and had a great little gallery, didn't she? 

Thank goodness once Ariel became human she relocated this gem to the Louvre where it currently hangs.

Shoes You This Day: Donuts or Doughnuts?

My friend Caranine had the awesome job of running the gallery at GW. She has curated a few shows and this was her last before she graduates. It was called the Donut Show and was all about donuts. Here's a Shoes You with the curator herself. :)

You know what's awesome about this installation? It's an homage to Sol LeWitt, an American contemporary artist linked to conceptualism and minimalism. He has always been one of my favorites because his work is so recognizable (and all over dc... NGA!, Hirshhorn!, SAAM!, Holocaust! whaa?). He was really into repetition and the process forming the final product. I myself have labored for hours while installing a Sol LeWitt piece at the BYU Museum of Art. I remember painstakingly checking every detail to make sure the correct piece was placed in the absolute perfect spot and everything was done in order. The final product is an innumerable amount of perspectives as the viewer takes in the piece from every angle. 

So, donut artist- I get it. I bet you painstakingly placed every donut in an exact manner Sol LeWitt would have been proud of.

Thanks for bringing back cool memories.

 49 Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes, 1967-71 

49 enamel-on-steel-box constructions